Ferrari lawyers say McLaren gained from leaked data

LONDON, July 26 (Reuters) Lawyers for Ferrari have suggested that McLaren owe their Formula One title advantage to leaked information from the Italian team, according to newspapers in Britain and Italy today.

On the morning of a hearing in Paris that could punish McLaren for their role in a 'spying' controversy, the Guardian and Milan's Corriere della Sera published details from a legal document they said was lodged with the London High Court on Friday.

In it, Ferrari's lawyers outlined their case against McLaren's chief designer Mike Coughlan and his wife Trudy after some 780 pages of Ferrari technical data was allegedly found in the couple's possession.

McLaren, with double world champion Fernando Alonso of Spain and 22-year-old British rookie Lewis Hamilton, are 27 points ahead of Ferrari in the constructors' championship with seven races remaining.

The gap was 25 points at the time the document was written.

''The difference between the two teams is so close that it is likely that McLaren's superior number of points is a consequence of its chief designer having the Ferrari documents,'' the newspapers quoted the lawyers as saying.

McLaren representatives were appearing before a hearing of the governing body, the International Automobile Federation, to answer a charge of unauthorised possession of Ferrari information.

McLaren team boss Ron Dennis, wearing a dark suit and with a sombre expression, was surrounded by television crews and photographers as he arrived at the FIA's Place de la Concorde headquarters.

If found guilty of fraudulent conduct, the Mercedes-powered team could face sanctions ranging from a reprimand to disqualification from the championship.

McLaren have said that nobody at the team, other than Coughlan, knew about the leaked information until they were informed by Ferrari on July 3.

However the Guardian said the document obtained by the newspapers listed five occasions on which McLaren executives, including chief operations officer Martin Whitmarsh and engineering director Paddy Lowe, were made aware of Ferrari secrets.

''The chief designer is part of the key group of three to four people who drive the technical team to improve the car,'' the legal document said.

''The opportunity for a chief designer to influence the car's performance in all areas is huge.'' The lawyers said losing the championship to McLaren would cost Ferrari at least 5.5 million euros under the sport's commercial agreement.

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